Snowy Ochils

31st December 2009

Snowy New Year's Eve outing from Dollar with JD.

It took almost 4 hours to complete an 8 mile circuit of King's Seat, Tarmangie and Whitewisp, wading through deep soft snow.

More photos | JD's photos

King's Seat Grudge Match

29th November 2009

Photos | Results

I felt too unwell to run, so instead took some photos at the 2nd running of the Westies vs Ochils vs HBT Grudge Match up King's Seat above Tillicoultry. The race resulted in a dead heat between Murray Strain and Al Anthony. Alayne Finlay was 1st lady, fairly closely followed by Ellie.

Maddy Moss Hill Race

16th July 2008
Results

My first attempt at Maddy Moss since 2005 when I was just over the hour. Luckily no such mishap this time as I clocked a PB of 57:43 in dry but windy conditions.

Grant Stewart quickly opened up an early lead, but was closed down by Al Anthony by the summit of Ben Cleuch and the 2 then ran together to the finish. Elke caught me on the run up to Ben Cleuch summit, but I pulled away on the descent. I got passed by Cameron Burt and Colin Glencorse just as we finished the long narrow track, but gave chase which helped me to pass Martin Dean right on the line.

Ellie had a good run to finish 2nd woman, just 3 seconds ahead of Hazel Dean.

Ochil 2000s Recce

19th January 2008
Photos

7 Westies made the Ochils traverse from Tillicoultry over The Law, Ben Cleuch, Ben Buck, Ben Ever, Blairdenon Hill and Dumyat - me, Rob, JD, Ellie, Johnston, Dougal and Murdo.

Ochil 2000's

25th August 2007
Results

A classic new race traversing the Ochils. Similar in some ways to Pentland Skyline and Two Breweries, but with KIMM-style rough ground and tricky navigation thrown in for good measure.

I enjoyed jogging along with Graeme Campbell, Dave Cummins and Ali Hubbard up until Ben Cleuch and Ben Buck. It was after that we started to drift apart and do our own things. Graeme & I ran together through the horrendous peat hags to Blairdennon, but Ali seemed to get a better (higher) line to our right and pulled in front. I caught Ali as he stopped for a bearing off the summit of Blairdennon. We ran together until Ali collapsed in a heap with cramp, allowing me to take the lead down to Jerah.

I was fairly confused at finding the track past the ruins to below the dam and had to stop a few times to check the map. This allowed Ali and Andy Kitchin to start catching me. They looked like they were closing me down fast on the final climb to Dumyat, but I figured if I could just top out before them, they would never catch me on the descent.

Arriving at the summit I was surprised to hear I was 2nd, since I thought Donald Naylor was in front, as well as Andy Symonds. With this extra incentive I hammered the descent as fast as I could, slightly nervous about taking the correct left forks off the main path. Luckily I didn't get any twinges of cramp until after finishing, when trying to change my shoes and socks was a bit of challenge!

King's Seat Grudge Match

19th November 2006
8km, 610m
Results
Excellent 3-way "Grudge Match" between HBT, Westies and Ochils with 44 runners taking part. I'd guess that HBT probably won given that they had 8 runners in the top 10. Westerlands' highest placed runner was David Riach in 12th place.

Actually a higher quality field than your average Maddy Moss race, the route took the same steep start as Maddy Moss before breaking right up the hill and along a ridge to King's Seat. Pretty snowy and wintry above about 500m.

The race was won by Don Naylor, with Al Anthony finishing 2nd. First lady was Claire Ward, with Eilidh Wardlaw finishing 2nd in a spectacular dead-heat finish with Dave Calder that saw Dave using the old sliding headfirst downhill into a stonewall technique to stop himself.